86 5UßSCRJßéR 5éRVICé 1 NEW ORDER OR RENEWAL: To start a subscription to The New Yorker or to extend your current subscription, enter your name and address below and check the subscription term you prefer Your Name Address City State Zip o One year: $24 0 New subscriber o Two years: $40 0 Renewal (attach mailing label) Additional Postage: Canada & MexIco $4 00 per year, other foreign $8 00 per year. o My check for $ is enclosed. Please bi II my: 0 Master Charge 0 American Express 0 Visa Account # Signature 4309 2. TO GIVE A GIFT. Enter your name and address above and your recipient s name and address below. D One year: $24 0 Two years: $40 To Address City Gift card to read IIFrom State Zip " J CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Please give us 4 weeks' notice. Attach your magazine label here; print your new address above in section 1 (If you have a question about your sub- scription, be sure to send us your label with your letter) Return this coupon to: THE, NE,W YOR.KE,R. Subscription Department 25 W. 43rd Street, N.Y., N.Y. 10036 Or phone toll-free 800-223-0200 (in N.Y. State 212-840-3800) the Presidential Palace, Husák's cere- monial home-flew the P residen tial banner, with the gold lion of Czech- oslovakia and the motto, borrowed by President Tomás Masaryk from the sayings of the reformer J an H us, "Truth shall prevail." And at the up- per end of W enceslas Square people waited for trams or for frIends by the vigorous equestrian statue of St. V áclav, the ten th-cen tury warrior prince-somewhat transfigured in the English-speaking world as Good King Wenceslas-who first bound this coun- try to Christianity and to the West Here, in 1968 and 1969, numerous demonstrations against the Soviet occu- pation took place. Here Czechoslovak flags and anti-Russian posters were hung, and crowds celebrated the VIC- tory of the Czechoslovak ice-hockey team over Russia. Nearby, the twenty- one-year-old Charles University student ] an Palach set himself on fire on January 16, 1969, leaving a note that began, cC'With regard to the fact that our nations are at the edge of hope- lessness, we decided to express our pro- test and awaken the people of this country in the following way." A few days later, five hundred thousand peo- ple lined Prague's streets to watch the procession following Palach's body through the city. In Olsany Cemetery, tributes are still being left, although hIS body has been moved elsewhere by the authorities; citizens still come to leave flowers on his former grave. People continue to congregate by St. Václav on his charger. "Meet me by St. Václav-King Wenceslas," they say to strangers who don't yet know their way around the city. When I was in the square recently, a young man was touching anew, intricately forged chain that has been hung on posts around the plinth to keep people away from the statue. The anxious expres- sion on the young man's face cleared as he looked up at the bronze Pnnce- Saint and saw that, despite the chain, rider and pacing horse were un- changed-though, obviously, it would take a miracle of the sort that Rabbi Löw worked with the golem for them to waken into life and step over the chain. -ANTHONY BAILEY . BLOCK THAT METAPHOR! [From the Miami H eraldl "This is the worst time since he's been in office," said a White House lobbyist. "But he has painted himself into such a terrible corner that \vhen he comes do\vn from the mountain, he may have nothing but bad news"